Bob Gritzinger: A moment of clarity: No pocket protectors allowed as Honda takes the leap to real-world testing with fuel-cell car

By
Bob Gritzinger

Nov 19, 2007

Amid all the noise from the Los Angeles auto show on everything from 100-mpg plug-in hybrids to two-mode hybrid trucks and sport/utility vehicles, Honda's plan to put its FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle on the street in mid 2008 may not seem all that earth-shattering.

But the company's announcement at the show is highly significant in the same way that putting the Honda Insight hybrid on the road back in 1999 was a big deal. With FCX Clarity, Honda moves fuel-cell mobility from laboratory experiment to real-world functionality. When these fuel-cell cars hit the road in Southern California next summer, there won't be a vanload of engineers and white-coated scientists following each one home to make sure it works. It'll just be the car and whoever is driving it--likely one of many early-technology adopters more than happy to plunk down $600 per month on a three-year lease (including maintenance and collision insurance) for the opportunity to be one of Honda's everyday guinea pigs.

Critics--no doubt those still laboring with fuel cells in the lab and at their hidden test centers--will call the FCX Clarity a publicity stunt and suggest that Honda actually risks harming a fuel-cell future by putting its car on the road before every detail is ironed out. Hogwash.

That's the same thing people said when the company decided at least some portion of the driving public was ready for a two-seat, two-mode aero-styled Insight hybrid--long before anyone else was ready to put one in consumer hands. Did Honda lose a ton of money on every Insight it sold? Probably. Was the Insight ready for prime-time, everyday use? Probably not. Did Honda gain valuable, ahem, insight into what the public would accept in a real-world hybrid and gain huge amounts of positive publicity? Absolutely.

JASON SAKURAI

With millions of hybrids on the road today, we all can see how that gamble worked out--even if the payoff for Honda may not have been as big as it was for Toyota with its Prius. The pioneering but oddly styled three-cylinder, gas-electric Insight went out of production in September 2006.

But there's still a parallel here. Honda is a company full of engineers who don't mind taking a chance on putting nearly ready technology in the hands of the general public because the reward from real-world learning is far greater than the risk.

Will Honda lose a pile of money on every FCX Clarity it leases? Probably. Would the company have been better served by dumping that same money into more fuel-cell lab testing? Probably not. Will the market learning and the public-relations boon be worth any paper loss? Without question.

Sure, plenty of questions remain, mostly surrounding the number of FCX Claritys that Honda plans to make available for consumer lease. And for the moment, those leasing the FCX will have to live in close proximity to hydrogen fueling depots and the Honda fuel-cell service center in the Los Angeles area. So if you're hoping to get a car in Bismarck, North Dakota, you'll have a wait. For a long time.

But those questions don't detract one bit from the courage Honda is showing in handing over the keys (or whatever widget they'll use to "start" these cars) to regular Janes and Joes to take the cars home for everyday use--with no strings attached.

When fuel-cell cars become as ubiquitous as today's hybrids--or at least as commonplace as they are in Southern California--we'll be able to mark this moment as the point when fuel-cell vehicles moved from theory to reality. Call it a moment of clarity.

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